By Li-mei Hoang
LONDON (Reuters) - British recruitment firm Michael Page (L:MPI) is to pay a special dividend to return cash to shareholders, it said on Thursday, paying out more than expected sooner after strong demand in its home market helped boost half-year profit.
The company, which mainly finds candidates to fill permanent positions, said the steady momentum of Britain's economic recovery had helped boost its first-half profit, as clients sought candidates for jobs in finance, property and construction.
Chief Executive Steve Ingham told Reuters he had seen good growth overall in the majority of its markets, particularly in the UK and United States, helping to offset changes in foreign exchange rates which had a negative impact of 11 million pounds.
"Some of our largest markets are doing well. The trend is undeniably positive... so generally speaking things seem to be improving," he said.
Recruiters like Michael Page, Hays (L:HAYS) and Robert Walters (L:RWA) are often seen as a bellwether for a country's economic confidence as companies tend to hire more permanent staff when confidence levels rise.
The company reiterated its full-year expectations after it posted a pretax profit of 40.4 million pounds for the first six months of 2015, up 13.7 percent from the same period last year.
Analysts on average expect the company to make a pretax profit this year of 72.20 million pounds, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Michael Page said it would pay a special dividend of 16 pence per share in addition to an interim dividend of 3.6 pence per share.
Ingham said it was the first time in the company's 39-year history that it had paid a special dividend after taking feedback from shareholders, having previously bought shares back instead. The two dividends will be paid at the beginning at October.
The special dividend was also an indication of the company's underlying strategy for cash return.
"If we were having a similar year and the markets continued to improve you could probably see something similar going forward," Ingham said.
Shares in the company jumped by 4.7 percent in early trading, making it one of the biggest gainers on the mid-cap FTSE (FTMC) index, giving it a 34 percent rise since the start of the year to boast a market value of 1.8 billion pounds.
"This (dividend) is more rapid than our forecast which assumed a 30 million/20 million pound interim and final," said Jefferies analysts in a note.